NFIB

Cherry Picking Your Direct Mailing Lists
11/ 11/ 2002

by Jeffrey Moses

Cherry picking means to select one-by-one the recipients you want included on your mailing list. Generally, a mailing list company generates lists from a large batch that may total tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands nationwide for some mailing categories (professionals, commercial businesses, specific industry titles, etc.).

By cherry picking, you can go through these voluminous lists (or through specified geographic portions of the lists) and designate the specific labels you want generated. This is usually done online by simply clicking on each recipient you want included. (When cherry picking online, only the name and city of each potential recipient is displayed. This is for the protection of the mailing company, which doesn't want to give out addresses free of charge.)

Cherry picking enables you to eliminate any recipients that you think unsuitable for your mailing, thereby assuring that you receive only labels that you can use. To give an example, a book publisher wants to promote a new series of cookbooks. The standard mailing list company has the names and addresses of approximately 20,000 bookstores in the U.S. Many of these bookstores would not be interested in cookbooks (such as religious bookstores or museum bookstores). It would be a waste of money for the publisher to send mailings to these stores, but by cherry picking, the publisher could eliminate stores that would not likely be potential customers. As this example shows, not only does cherry picking save money by giving you a "cleaner" list, it provides a list that is likely to yield a higher rate of return than a list obtained in the normal way.

The best part is that the mailing company shouldn't charge extra for this service. Be forewarned, however, not all mailing companies are set up for cherry picking. If your representative at a mailing list company isn't sure whether the service is offered, ask to speak with someone (preferably the director) in the company's Internet department. It's likely that the company's software enables cherry picking, but that not all service reps are aware of it. A person in the Internet department may be able to set you up, so all you'll have to do is go online, select the desired lists, then cherry pick through them. A mailing list and labels will then be generated based on your selections, and your account charged the appropriate amount.

Small Business Sound Off
Does this story hit home?  Share your story with us